Sell me an amp.

[david eaton]

I posted this on the gear page and received some nice replies...since we need some discussion starters I'll post it here as well.

I play in two contemporary groups at our church, 8:30 am in a old, large sanctuary (a very live room) and 8pm for our college service in a smaller coffee shop sized building (1500 sq. ft).

I have been using two amps. The first is a Fender Ultra Chorus, a 65 watt, solid state 2x12. I can turn the amp up to about 1.5, maybe 2 before I'm "too loud" in the sanctuary. While the amp has a fairly decent clean sound, it doesn't work well with my distortion pedal (line 6 dm-4).

The other is a Boogie Studio .22, a 22 watt, 1x12 combo. I can get the volume and masters up to about 4 before I'm "too loud". While the amp has a decent clean sound, it's not the greatest, and for whatever reason is very trebly in the sanctuary (room acoustics, since it sounds ok at home and in the college building). It does have a great distortion tone with the pedal.

So, what I'm interested in is an amp that has a great clean tone which will work and play well with my PRSs (HBI, CE22, CE24 alder) and the distortion pedal.

Other constraints. Well, low wattage (see volume problems above), portable (since on a given Sunday it will leave my house, go into the sanctuary, then across the street to another building and home again), and while my wife would be amenable to a large expenditure if it was well justified, we have a second child coming in a month, and my wife would like a different house so price is some concern, though as I said, if it were a justifiable expense she'd go with it. I don't want to run direct (a la POD) since I don't trust our sound people very much.

[wsaraceni]

try the fender pro jr. its 299 and i am loving it.

[Dan O]

fender pro. jr

[Christopher Wade]

Baba had a Peavey Classic 30 that he was digging. Good price, volume in the range you're looking for and he seemed to really dig the tones. Maybe he'll chime in.

[Cu22_Southpaw]

Blues Jr. w/ reverb?

Tech 21 Trademark 60? May not have the cleans you are looking for, and from what I hear may not take dist. pedals well.

What about an EQ pedal for your existing amps to help you fit the sanctuary's acoustics?

Just some food for thought.

[Baba]

Baba had a Peavey Classic 30 that he was digging. Good price, volume in the range you're looking for and he seemed to really dig the tones. Maybe he'll chime in.Definitely a good amp, I sold it because I'm not playing the particular room it was perfect for, and size and volume isn't so much of an issue for me now. I'm not a dist. pedal-in-front-of-an-amp kind of guy, I like to use the amp itself for tones. I cannot attest to running pedals into it, but by itself, I liked it. It only has one EQ (shared), and really, I don't know if it would be any better than your 22 caliber, it's rated at 30 watts, and it's loud.

[Marty McFly]

I bought it sight unseen, based only on web research, but I am really impressed with my Traynor YCV 40(T), 40 watts, 2x10. You can also get a 1x12 setup, or go down to the 20 watt version. True tube, great quality, very Fendery cleans, OK crunch with a pedal or thorugh the gain channel. Weight is somewhere around 50 lbs., I believe.

When I bought it, I ended up selling by Fender Deluxe Reverb. I play in a small church of about 160 people on any given Sunday, running the amp at 4 and my CE22 at 6, or my strat at 8. You can buy them brand new for $500 - $600 if you find the right place, which is a great price compared to other amps with similar specs.

[lchender]

Try a fender blackface reissue of some variety. They have wonderful clean tone and I have had very nice results with using the DM4 with them. I have Super Reverb Reissue that I play a HBII through with the DM4 and I'm very happy with my tone. Make sure you spend the time and program your own patches into the DM4, though. The 4 factory pre-programmed patches didn't do much for me and the unit is capable of much better IMHO. Good luck.

[Stratmeister]

THD Univalve. Small size and weight, big possibilities. You can mix and match tubes at will to get the tone you want. Pre and power tubes. Use a 12AT, AU, AX7 or 5751 up front, and 6V6, 6L6, even EL34 if you want out back. You can mate to any speaker cab you want, I use everything from a 1x12 to a Marshall 4x12. Built in impedance switching. It's got a built in power attenuator, if it's too loud when you adjust the volume for tone, just turn the attenuator down.

Figure around 15W, and surprisingly loud with a good cab.

[jbird]

I would stick with the Studio .22 and work with the dist. sound, what about a Fulltone Fulldrive II?

[Dan Desy]

My Studio 22 was the best small amp I have ever heard. In fact, I played it exclusively for over 10 years and even gigged it. I say stick with it.

[david eaton]

My Studio 22 was the best small amp I have ever heard. In fact, I played it exclusively for over 10 years and even gigged it. I say stick with it.
I'm leaning towards doing that...though the siren song of a new amp is strong. I've also thought about picking up a second studio 22, or something along the lines mentioned above, just to reduce the amount of moving amps back and forth that I do.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I need to get out somewhere and play a bunch of amps (which means a 2+ hour drive somewhere) and hear the differences.

By the way, my wife is very happy no one has suggested a boutique combo, though the Maz jr. that I tried a few months ago sure had a nice sound... :)

[Dan Desy]

You can always find an excuse to shop for a new amp. But for now, in my mind, as far as need goes (can I say need on here, or will that get me banned?), you're covered.

So if you're looking for something different, by all mean, go for it! I still think the studio 22 is the best little amp you can get.

[daddycam]

i also play in church, and plug a POD 2.0 into the power amp in of a fender hot rod deluxe. that works pretty well because i can then just control the volume using the master on the POD, and the sound doesn't change much with volume. the POD isn't perfect, but it's pretty versatile and convenient to use like this. i don't trust the sound guy to run direct either. the other plus is that we have a hot rod deluxe at church, and i have one at home so my sound is pretty much the same without having to haul an amp into church.

you might just like a hot rod deluxe with your distortion pedal, too. it's got a pretty nice clean channel, but it's also pretty loud for a small 40w amp.

[Dan Desy]

i also play in church, and plug a POD 2.0 into the power amp in of a fender hot rod deluxe. that works pretty well because i can then just control the volume using the master on the POD, and the sound doesn't change much with volume. the POD isn't perfect, but it's pretty versatile and convenient to use like this. i don't trust the sound guy to run direct either. the other plus is that we have a hot rod deluxe at church, and i have one at home so my sound is pretty much the same without having to haul an amp into church.

you might just like a hot rod deluxe with your distortion pedal, too. it's got a pretty nice clean channel, but it's also pretty loud for a small 40w amp.
Or a POD-like-thing into the effects return of your Studio 22!
Yes, sorry I am obsessed...

[daddycam]

Or a POD-like-thing into the effects return of your Studio 22!
Yes, sorry I am obsessed...
exactly.

i should also add that the POD is pretty worthless live without the floorboard or the smaller footswitch.

[tmoore]

...though the Maz jr. that I tried a few months ago sure had a nice sound... :)
Duuuude.
The Maz Jr is the bomb. I was ready to sell mine and switch over to a Matchless lightning until last weekend. I did a good honest ampathon and found the Jr to be just too good. I played five guitars through five amps; Lightining, Maz Jr, Bad Cat Cub II, Victoria Tweed Deluxe and Rivera Chubster 40. (All this in the house and, would you believe, I scored an SC-30 on eBay today! Dude! But I digress) All awesome amps, but the Dr Z's have an uncanny ability to make whatever sound you want and make it well.
The Chubster 40 is in a class by itself too for 'bang for buck' apeal. It hangs nicely with the booteeks and has two chanels with unmatchable versatility in terms of clean to scream, chime to chunk, dark to bright and loud to low. I think they can be had for $700-750 used.

[ekp]

I posted this on the gear page and received some nice replies...since we need some discussion starters I'll post it here as well.

I play in two contemporary groups at our church, 8:30 am in a old, large sanctuary (a very live room) and 8pm for our college service in a smaller coffee shop sized building (1500 sq. ft).

I have been using two amps. The first is a Fender Ultra Chorus, a 65 watt, solid state 2x12. I can turn the amp up to about 1.5, maybe 2 before I'm "too loud" in the sanctuary. While the amp has a fairly decent clean sound, it doesn't work well with my distortion pedal (line 6 dm-4).

The other is a Boogie Studio .22, a 22 watt, 1x12 combo. I can get the volume and masters up to about 4 before I'm "too loud". While the amp has a decent clean sound, it's not the greatest, and for whatever reason is very trebly in the sanctuary (room acoustics, since it sounds ok at home and in the college building). It does have a great distortion tone with the pedal.

So, what I'm interested in is an amp that has a great clean tone which will work and play well with my PRSs (HBI, CE22, CE24 alder) and the distortion pedal.

Other constraints. Well, low wattage (see volume problems above), portable (since on a given Sunday it will leave my house, go into the sanctuary, then across the street to another building and home again), and while my wife would be amenable to a large expenditure if it was well justified, we have a second child coming in a month, and my wife would like a different house so price is some concern, though as I said, if it were a justifiable expense she'd go with it. I don't want to run direct (a la POD) since I don't trust our sound people very much.
The problem with "low power" is that hearing is quite non-linear and the power has to go way down be for it to be low level. Consider that the conversation is below 80 dBA and the speakers have a sensitivity of high 90 dB per watt at one meter. This means that one-tenth of a watt will produce conversational levels. While attenuators might get you to your sound level, some if not most of them alter the tone adversely. If you would like some further discussion, drop me an email...

[Jason Penn]

For all practical purposes a modeller would work great in you situation. A L6 Flextone (any series) or the Vox Valvetronix. I know they're not the be all/end all but they work great in a low volume gig.


Bad thing (or good thing) about low wattage tube amps is a 15 watt tube amp seems to have the punch of 100 watt SS or digital amp. The Peavey Delta Blues I have been using is a 1x15 Classic 30 + Tremelo and it has been working out pretty good. If I can just find a good transparent boost to slap in front of it I'm set up for most gigs.